Bardhyl Ajeti

Bota Sot

June 25, 2005, in an area outside Pristina, Serbia

Ajeti, 28, a reporter for the Albanian-language daily Bota Sot, died in an Italian hospital on June 25, three weeks after being shot in Kosovo, Agence France-Presse reported.

Ajeti was driving from Kosovo's capital, Pristina, to the eastern
Kosovo town of Gnjilane on June 3 when at least one attacker shot at
him from a passing car, according to the Kosova Journalists
Association, a local union. Ajeti fell into a coma after being shot and
was evacuated to a hospital in Milan where he died, AFP reported.

Police spokesman Refki Morina said that Ajeti was shot in the head at
close range but did not disclose any possible motives, according to The
Associated Press.

Baton Haxhiu, president of the Kosova Journalists Association, told CPJ that Ajeti wrote daily editorials for Bota Sot,
which is allied with the governing Democratic League of Kosovo party.
He often criticized opposition party figures in his editorials, Haxhiu
told CPJ.

The Temporary Media Commissioner, Kosovo's
internationally supervised media regulator, said in a June 6 statement
that Ajeti filed a complaint with the office on May 17 saying that his
life had been threatened.

In summer 2002, Bota Sot and
Ajeti supported international authorities who arrested former members
of the Kosova Liberation Army (KLA) as part of a broader anticrime
campaign, according to the London-based Institute for War & Peace
Reporting. Ajeti later criticized nationalist Albanian protestors for
demanding that international forces release the arrested members of the
KLA.

Several journalists from Kosovo told CPJ that Ajeti was in the process of leaving Bota Sot to establish a rival newspaper.